What is art? A pretty ceramic tea set is art, a well-designed building is art, a beautifully embroidered skirt is art, a water-shaped river rock is art, and a fossilized wood is art. The world is full of naturally made arts and manmade arts. What is in common between these two? Making itself; the process of making is what makes it art. It is a form of existence. “When you are making art, you are taking out of the energy in your body and putting it into a physical object.” Contemporary artist Kiki Smith describes in a speech, “Basically, I think art is just a way to think, it’s like standing in the wind and letting it pull you in whatever direction it wants to go.” (UM Stamps) Art is the transformation of making, from one creature to another, from human to a piece of drawing, from the wind to the wind eroded hill. The joy of creating makes artist happy, but how does one know that he has a connection with art making? What makes one think that he will become a full time professional artist? As an art student myself, I lately had two conversations with Local 14 Art Show former director Mary Dennis and Portland Open Studio director Leah Kohlenberg, to talk about how they found their connection with art.
Every time I met Leah Kohlenberg, I could sense her energy from far. Nearly a decade of reporter experience made her a quick thinker and observer with a welcoming and friendly smile, ten years of art teaching revealed her generous sharing nature, sixteen years of art practice trained her eyes for discovering real beauty in life, and all the years of traveling in Asian and Europe awarded her with wisdom to understand different culture better. Here is how she enjoys the creative art making: “I’m growing to love the challenge of continually growing through mistakes. It’s really no different from learning to run or cook.” (Barrow)
We met at Red E café and gallery, surrounded by artworks, sipping our tea and listening to her traveling stories. Writing is a creative process, word by word, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, transforming abstract thoughts and stories into pages of letters. She did that for eight and half years, both in U.S. and HongKong. When a person becomes familiar with an environment or an occupation, this person walks into a comfort zone that is hard to get out, but Kohlenberg is the one who goes for changes. I was thinking about how much energy and braveness this slim figure generates while hearing her story from America to Philippine, from HongKong to Mongolia, from Hungary to Armenia. From the Bristish woman who studied in Mongolia in Tanka Art School with monks and came to her house to take shower, to the Finnish female artist who spoke many languages and good at chess. The color of these landscapes and the smiles of these characteristic people brighten her life, also took her into art’s arms.
At age thirty, not knowing those languages or culture, she went on a life adventure. She didn’t know what was waiting for her, she didn’t know how much the two and half years of stay in HongKong and the one year in Mongolia would change her; “but it did, it changed me,” Kohlenberg signed. The distinct beauty of the landscape she saw, the interesting talented people she met opened her eyes to this crazily amazing world. She started to wonder, why the colors spoke to her in a way she never experienced before and the people she became good friends with were all artists. The feeling of connecting to art was so strong while she looked at the vast colorful Mongolia view and breathed the minus thirty degree air.
Kohlenberg started a job at ABC news online section after came back to United States. That was in 2000, she bought a house, painted every wall in every room. When she dropped the house paint onto boards, she was very happy. She looked around and said, “Wait a minute, there is another way of expressing besides writing!” And ever since she started another method of making: painting. “So for the first three years, I worked daily, took classes,” Kohlenberg recalls, “…the process was more interesting — the ultimate challenge — than the finished product to me.”(Barrow) She isn’t just enjoys the art making, but also enjoys teaching journalists in painting classes - a life of making and sharing.
Coincidently, Mary Dennis also found her connection with art at age thirty. Dennis didn’t have to travel far to find it like Leah Kohlenberg did. Even though she graduated from college in Elementary Education with an Art minor, she didn’t take art seriously until she had her first child and quit teaching. Besides gave birth to her child, she also planted a seed of art in her heart. She started taking watercolor classes, later explored soft pastel, eventually find her medium: oil pastel. We met at Behind the Museum café in one morning in May, a good place to enjoy matcha latte and appreciate some Japanese art pieces. It was very close to Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery where her works are showing. While introducing her newest portfolio, a red hard cover art book, she went through every page and generously explained how she did all these paintings. She talked about these paintings like talking about her children. Proud of how they formed themselves and how she was able to have these talented kids. The love between artist and her artworks was established during the process of making. This love is also the love towards life itself, it flows in and out of the colors on her paintings. I was surprised that she really went into details and telling me, another artist, about the whole process. Her sharing nature as an educator was shown throughout the interview; she even printed out and brought over her recent read, “The Six Most Common Mistakes Artists Make When Approaching Galleries” by Jason Horejs. Things that she didn’t notices in years of art making, she doesn’t want other artist to have to go a long way to learn. That reminds me what she said in the introduction of her book Capturing the Moment, “When I see something, whether it be a line or arrangement of colors or a scene that I think is beautiful, I want other people to see it too.” (Dennis) After sharing her watercolor art making experience and experiments with soft pastel and oil pastel, we went on to talk about her children. Her eyes lit up when she was sharing the touching story of her daughter and the humorous of her forty three years old son’s comic book. I’ve came to believe that combine all the passion and love toward her family and her art, these busy creative art making life style and the loving and sharing nature are what keep her in great shape at her age. When she walked in to the café that morning, her graceful style fitted right into the elegant café. This is another life of making magically influent a person from inside out.
From these two interviews, I learned about two creative artists, educators, art organization directors, mothers; and how they found their connection with art from art making itself. I also learned about those creative artists, who they met or they live with, influent people around them by making arts and sharing them. The transformation of art can be from one person to another as well. That is to say, humans are living arts. Throughout our lives we are going through an art of making; how we slowly form ourselves depend on the culture, the society, the history and the present influences; but mostly importantly, depending on ourselves. A person’s life is a creative art making process. Kohlenberg observes that writing is easier after she become an artist. Why? Because the process of art making itself is a meditation-like observation, thinking and reflection on the life experiences, it is being transformed into expressive physical object. At this point, I was persuaded that we are living in such an artistic world; the world itself is a process of making. If you enjoy making arts, go ahead and make them, after all, the connection between art and human has always been excited. Kiki Smith’s word concludes the life of making, “My works are celebrations of being here in this form now.” (Tate)
Works Cited
Barrow, Olivia. “Why it’s so hard to identify as an artist.” Artplusmarketing.com, Aug 1, 2017. https://artplusmarketing.com/why-its-so-hard-to-identify-as-an-artist-4d5709c06655. Date accessed 5/15/2018
Dennis, Mary. Capturing the Moment. Blurb.com. 2018. http://www.blurb.com/b/8559143-capturing-the-moment . Date accessed 5/15/2018
Tate. “Kiki Smith – Studio Visit | TateShots.” Youtube.com. Mar 28, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT7jKNlgbBI . Date accessed 5/15/2018
UM Stamps. “Kiki Smith - Copy Cat: Meandering Prints.” Youtube.com. Oct 23, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0tRX41jzu4&t=1873s . Date accessed 5/15/2018.